


A New You: And a New Me

by deebainwonderland



Series: Irondad Whumptober [23]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Hurt Peter Parker, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Whumptober 2019, bonus story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:33:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21596164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deebainwonderland/pseuds/deebainwonderland
Summary: The Tony Stark that Peter Parker knew was not the man that he’d known.#whumptober2019 #bonusstory
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Irondad Whumptober [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1500863
Comments: 3
Kudos: 141





	A New You: And a New Me

**Author's Note:**

> So... when I said this would be out in a few days, apparently I meant a month. Whoops. Anyway, enjoy the last installment of this series!

The Tony Stark that Peter Parker knew was not the man that he’d known.

Pre-Snap, Tony was more of a reluctant mentor than anything else. Sure, after the whole Vulture fiasco the two became closer. Peter went up to the Tower a few times a month to work in Tony’s actual personal lab. Once Peter (mostly) got over his nervous nature, the two discovered they actually got along pretty well. 

They loved the same movies. Peter would call them “old” and Tony would shoot him a scathing look and say they were “classics.” 

Tony also let Peter tinker with some of his old suits and seemed genuinely amused by his endless enthusiasm. He’d ask about the boy’s day at school and let Peter plattel on about his latest lego adventure with Ned. Peter in turn would ask him about the latest Stark Industry business drama. 

Slowly, the two of them became quite comfortable in each other’s company and Tony became more than just Peter’s rich benefactor. 

But still. Peter was just the slightly annoying kid that Tony felt a responsibility to look after. It wasn’t a perfect relationship, but it worked for them.

After Tony Snapped and Peter came back from the dead, everything changed.

Tony had been unconscious for a week after the Snap. Peter stayed at the cabin at Pepper’s instistance, telling the boy that Tony would want to see him as soon as he awoke. Peter wasn’t so sure about that but he and May stayed anyway, just wanting to be around each other. 

To Peter’s surprise as soon as he stepped the room after Tony had woken up, the man had begun to cry and reached out for him. Peter tripped over his own feet in his haste to get to the man. He’d practically collapsed on the bed and Tony pulled him into his arms, tears wetting Peter’s hair as he shook violently around the boy. 

Since then a new dynamic developed between the two. Watching Tony with his daughter proved just how much the man changed. He was gentler in every way with a softer voice and eyes. He held very little interest in being the center of the world’s spotlight. 

This new nature bled into his relationship with Peter. Peter never thought of Tony Stark as a tactile man but he’d come to realize that was another changed element. In fact, Tony seemed to have a desperate need to touch Peter, as if that were the only way he could be certain the boy was real. A hand on his shoulder, a kiss on his head, fingers running through his curls. All became commonplace in Peter’s new life.

Once, during his first trip back to the cabin after school had started, Peter had awoken before anyone else in the house and decided to go for a short morning run. He loved the seclusion and beauty of the cabin’s surrounding land. 

When Peter returned to the cabin thirty minutes later, he found Tony in a rage on the front porch. The man yelled at him that he was never, never to leave the house without letting someone know. 

A thoroughly startled Peter meekly apologized, shifting from one foot to the other uncomfortably. Tony stared at him with wide eyes for a moment before the fight drained out of him. He’d reached out and yanked Peter into his arms, whispering into his hair how scared he’d been when he’d woken up to find his kid gone. 

That was the first time Tony referred to Peter as his kid. Peter embraced him him back just as hard, muttering another apology into his shirt. 

After that tense moment, it was as though Tony was determined to show Peter how much the kid meant to him.

Peter was slowly learning to accept the love that Tony determinedly pushed his way. He could now respond to the myriad of nicknames Tony called him without blushing red. He called Tony more when he was in the city, always pleasantly surprised when Tony’s happy voice answered him. 

Today, Peter was at the cabin for a long weekend. He was sitting on the edge of the dock keeping an eye on Pepper and Morgan splashing in the shallows while Tony was on a work call in the cabin. 

Every few minutes Morgan would turn to the boy she had considered her brother before they’d even meet and wave a new discovery in the air. Peter would shoot her a thumbs up and laugh, feeling inexplicably at peace. The cabin had quickly become Peter’s sanctuary and he felt at home with this little family.

After a few minutes, Peter heard footsteps coming down the dock. He doesn’t look back as the footsteps stopped right behind him and then smiled a little when Tony groaned as he lowered himself down behind Peter. 

Peter glances down as Tony’s legs spread out on either side of him and arms wrapped around his middle. Peter allowed himself to be pulled back until he was leaning against the other’s chest. 

Tony pressed a kiss to the side of Peter’s head and he responded with a happy little hum. 

“You’re going to hurt your back sitting all hunched like that, Pete.”

Peter laughed, shaking his head. “I’m not the one whose bones creaked while sitting down, Mr. Stark. Don’t think I didn’t hear that.”

“Bratty kid,” Tony responded and Peter could hear the smile in his voice.

“Daddy!” cried a voice from the lake and the two looked over to see Morgan some distance away, waving a shell above her head. 

“Looks awesome, Morgana!” Tony called back.

“I’m glad this is a long weekend,” Peter said quietly after a moment. “I was missing this.”

The arm around his middle tightened. Tony dipped his head down to bury his nose in Peter’s soft curls. “You know you’re always welcome here, kiddo. I’d never let you leave if I thought I could swing it.”

Peter laughed, twisting his head around to look up at Tony’s face. “I don’t think Aunt May would be chill with that.”

“Aunt Hottie can come live here too,” Tony said, smile so soft it had Peter feeling vaguely self-conscious. “Pepper already loves her. Though I swear having those two women together in the same house is a recipe for disaster.”

“And you still want her to come live here?” Peter asked with a grin.

“If it means I get you too, then, hell yeah.” 

That caused Peter to whine in embarrassment and hide his face in Tony’s neck. The older man chuckled into his hair.

The two watched Morgan and Pepper playing in the water for a few more minutes until Peter shivered. 

“Cold, baby?” asked Tony, words now heavy with concern. “I didn’t feel a breeze.” 

“No, I’m fine,” Peter quickly reassured him. “Just didn’t sleep very well last night.”

“Yeah?” asked Tony, hand now moving up and down on the boy’s back, “What was that about, kiddo?”

Peter gave a half-shrug. 

Tony gently pulled the boy slightly back in his arms to force the kid to look up at him. “Peter,” he said with a warning in his voice. The boy shrunk a little but was caged in his mentor’s arms, unable to move away. 

Peter gave up after a moment and sagged back against him. “Just stupid high school stuff.” 

Tony hummed sympathetically. “I’ve heard around the watering hole high school can be a rough place. Anything in particular?”

Peter squirmed in embarrassment, feeling heat crept along his neck and up into his cheeks. “Nope. Nothing specific.”

Another new weapon in the Tony Stark arsenal was the ability to spot the lies of his children. He tapped a finger against the boy’s chin. “Yup, I don’t think so, Pete. Want to try again?”

“Mr. Stark,” Peter protested, internally wincing at how much the name came out sounding like a whine. “It was nothing. Just an embarrassing thing with one of my teachers.”

Tony pulled away from Peter and crawled on his knees to sit in front of the boy. Peter didn’t meet his eyes so he reached out to take one of his hands. “Tell me more, Peter.”

The hand in Peter’s own suddenly felt hot to the touch. “Can’t you ever leave anything alone?”

Tony quirked an eyebrow at the outburst and waited patiently. 

After a moment, the sudden fight in Peter deflated. “Sorry.”

“I don’t want you to be sorry, Peter,” Tony told him gently, “I want you to tell me the truth.”

Peter considered his options but knew he couldn't resist the open worry and affection in his mentor’s eyes. “It was just… I fell asleep in one of my classes yesterday. We were in the middle of reading through a chapter of _The Adventures of Huck Finn_. I swear, I just dozed off for a second but then Ned was shaking me awake and my teacher was standing over me. He told me that if I had time to sleep then I must have already finished the book. Then he made me stand up and asked me a ton of really hard questions about the chapter and I didn’t know the answers. I mean, it was my fault for falling asleep but it was still humiliating to be called out like that in front of the whole class. Everyone but Ned was laughing.”

“That’s rough, kid,” Tony murmured, making a mental note to figure out just which of Peter’s teachers had seen fit to embarrass him in the middle of class.

Peter shrugged, as if trying to play off the moment. Tony could tell he didn’t want to talk about it anymore. He’d try to get more of the story later when Peter was more ready to talk. 

“Why didn’t you call me?” he asked gently. 

“It was nothing, Mr. Stark. I don’t need to trouble you with dumb high school drama.”

“And you really think I would have minded?” Tony asked incredulously. 

Peter shook his head, biting his lip. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just you’ve got such a great thing going here. With Pepper and Morgan and the lake and all. You don’t need to worry about stuff in the city.”

Tony closed his eyes and brought a hand up to rub his face. “I swear kid, you are going to put me in an early grave.”

Peter’s hand shot out and slapped the man’s shoulder. “That is like so supremely not funny, Mr. Stark.” 

Seeing his kid’s distressed expression, Tony sighed and began to rub along his back again. “Sorry, kiddo. I just meant that you drive me up the wall sometimes. I want you to call me when you’re upset. Or if you’ve had a bad day. Or for no entirely no reason at all. You’re my kid, Pete.”

Peter heaved a sigh and flopped down on the ground, resting his head in the man’s lap. As Tony waited patiently for an answer he stroked his fingers through Peter’s soft brown curls. Patience was another new notion for the post-Snap Tony Stark. 

“I can’t come running to you every time I have a problem,” Peter said slowly. “I’m almost eighteen now. I need to know how to handle these things on my own.”

Tony considered this for a moment. He knew that when he was Peter’s age, he’d rather break a leg than admit something was too much from him to cope with.

“I get that, kid,” he said. “But I want to help with your burdens. It hurts me to know that you’re going through something alone.”

“That seems like circular logic, Mr. Stark,” Peter said with a smile.

“Maybe,” Tony admitted, leaning down to press a kiss into the soft curls. “Just promise me you’ll think about that next you’re deciding whether or not to call me.” 

“Ok,” Peter promised softly. 

Peter Parker had been dead for five years. Now, he was back in the land of the living. The world wasn’t the same and neither was Peter. He had to find his own way in this grief-ladened land. 

It wasn’t an easy journey but being an integral part of Tony Stark’s heart wasn’t a bad place to start.

**Author's Note:**

> This series has been such a pleasure to share. Please leave a kudo and/or comment if you enjoyed! 
> 
> Until next time.
> 
> ~deeba


End file.
